Prior to their machining or manufacturing, rotary parts such as those used in gas turbine engines must be precisely loaded and positioned in the machining tool. In many cases, the rotary parts are pre-assembled with supporting fixtures before being machined in order to reduce the occurrence of deformations and vibrations when the rotary part is being machined.
Current techniques for positioning the rotary part in the machining tool typically involve setting up the rotary part and the supporting fixtures by hand. This manual setup can be tedious and time-consuming, and can lead to a considerable loss of machining time. Such a manual set-up may also increase the risk of damage to the rotary part. Furthermore, conventional techniques often act as a bottleneck in the machining process because of the significant human intervention required.